01 Transcontinental Race No. 8 –About the Race & Live Tracking (Cap63) – Start: 24.7.

You’re now at post 01 of my TCRNo8-series. To jump to all so far existing posts on this in chronological order:
01 TCRNo8 –About the Race & Live Tracking (Cap63) – Start: 24.7.
02 TCRNo8 – My Rider Introduction
03 TCRNo8 – Equipment & Packing List

---

Something new is on and I can’t wait for it to start! I have the immense privilege to ride the Transcontinental Race No. 8 – one of the most iconic cycling races in the world. HELL YES, I’ll do it again. I’m as excited as I am humbled.

My personal background: In 2018 I already joined and finished the 6th edition of the race. In the meantime did two other races (Blog entries/information here: Three Peaks Bike Race 2019 & Transiberica Bike Race 2021). Now – through the lottery and maybe aided by the fact that I successfully finished my first TCR – I am privileged to be granted a placement to ride it again.

Here you first find some information on what the TCR actually is & how you can live-track my “dot” on the map, if you wish. In case you‘re interested in my gear or my rider introduction you find the links to post 02 and 03 above at the beginning of this post.

Transcontinental Race No. 8 – facts & figures

The Transcontinental Race is a (attention please…) self-supported free-route ‘ultra’-endurance single-stage bike-packing time-trial in the spirit of Mike Hall† (who founded this race, and is one of the founders of this sport and scene). That means…

• Start: Geraardsbergen/Belgium – Sun. 24th of July 2022, 22:00h
• Finishline: Burgas/Bulgaria, whenever riders arrive.
• 4 Checkpoints (CPs) spread over middle and eastern Europe to be approached in this order:
  • Start Geraardsbergen
  • CP1) Krupka/Czechia
  • CP2) Passo di Gavia/Italy
  • CP3) Durmitor/Montenegro
  • CP4) Transalpina Strategica/Rumania
  • Finish in Burgas/Bulgaria.
• free route choice, except for a compulsory parcours at each Checkpoint (ranging from 40km to 120km)
• over 4.000km and 40.000m cumulative climbing
• self-supported, i.e. carry your own luggage, no outside assistance, no rider-cooperation, no supply pre-arranged
• single-stage, i.e. the clock never stops; there are no fixed stages or stops, neither for sleeping nor for food etc.
• ca. 275 participants (28 of which riding as pairs, all others solo), all genders competing in the same category
• more detailed rules: see here

A spectator sport! – How to follow the race and riders in realtime

Despite the geographical spread of the events, endurance bicycle racing is a spectator sport, because: Each rider has their own GPS-tracker. Your chance to kick my a** when I hang around for too long at McDonald’s or oversleep in the ditch!

• Riders’ locations can be tracked in realtime on
  • https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/tcrno8
  • or here with the same interface and additional reporting and social media feed: https://dotwatcher.cc/race/tcr-no8
• I am rider number 63 (“Cap63”)
• on social-media my hashtag is #tcrno8cap63 – in case you post something that concerns me, I’m super happy to find out! using this hashtag is a way to make sure it’s found by me and everyone who cares.
• I’ll post regular updates as stories (some posts) on Instagram: @maltecyclingtourist also here: feel free to tag me in stories/posts when relevant : )
• I’ll also upload everyday on my Strava: Malte Cyclingtourist

Additionally the race in general it is vividly accompanied on social-media:

• general event-hashtag: #tcrno8
• all riders have their own hashtag in the form #tcrno8capXX (XX = cap number without leading zeros)
• official race-account on Instagram: @thetranscontinental
• great social-media and other reporting on https://www.dotwatcher.cc/race/tcr-no8

I’m always happy to hear from you. Encouraging messages, cheering, etc. are highly motivating (also to the other riders!). I may not always be able to reply immediately, but be sure I read messages and mentions with great pleasure!